Part of the work performed during the development of this invention utilized U.S. government funds under grants No. CHE92-96013 and No. CHE93-20611 from the National Science Foundation, Chemistry Division, Analytical and Surface Science. The government may have certain rights in this invention.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method for forming and exploiting gradients at the interfaces between components of a composite material as well as the composite material itself and devices which incorporate the material. In particular, the invention relates to a method for forming and exploiting magnetic gradients at the interfaces between components of a composite magnetic material and the magnetic composite material itself as well as devices which incorporate the composite material such as electrochemical systems including fuel cells, batteries, membrane sensors, and flux switches resulting in enhanced and modified flux and performance in those systems.
2. Background of the Related Art
Bulk properties of molecules in magnetic fields are fairly well understood. In the detailed description of preferred embodiments, it will be shown that interfacial gradients in properly prepared composite materials can be exploited to enhance flux in many types of electrochemical systems such as fuel cells, batteries, membrane sensors, filters and flux switches. First, however, the following discussion provides a brief overview of the current understanding of magnetic properties in composites. In particular, the discussion below summarizes the thermodynamic, kinetic and mass transport properties of bulk magnetic materials.